Various forms of media coders and decoders enable media to be transmitted from point to point within networks. Cooperating sets of coders and decoders are referred to as “codecs” herein. Additionally, the terms “coder” and “encoder” are used herein synonymously.
Typically, the encoder may interact or cooperate with a number of decoders. All of these decoders may or may not be configured alike, or have the same processing capabilities. Additionally, the decoders are typically not configured to provide the encoder with information such as the properties, features, or capabilities of particular ones of the decoders. In this environment, the encoders may send data to the decoders as if all of the decoders are homogenous entities, when the decoders may not be.
Networks typically represent lossy channels, such that some amount of data transmitted via such networks is expected to be corrupted, damaged, or lost altogether. Various schemes for recovering from such data loss or corruption have been proposed. Some of these recovery schemes may involve resending entire duplicates of the lost or damaged data. Accordingly, these recovery schemes may unnecessarily consume network bandwidth.